Author: Joey deVilla

Earlier this year, the Ginger Ninja and I went to the tenth anniversary of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard, where we hung out with a number of people we haven’t seen in a while, including John Palfrey:

John Palfrey leading the final session at the Berkman@10 conference.

Another person we saw: Doc Searls, who says he somehow keeps running into me every time he passes through Accordion City. I’d seen him only a couple of weeks before then, when he was passing by the b5media offices (he’s on the advisory board).

There aren’t enough photos of Doc in formal wear online. Let’s see if I can fix that:

Doc Searls and me at the Berkman@10 gala.

 

I don’t know if he knows it, but John Perry Barlow and I have a little ritual. Every time I see him, he looks at me and says “Play the accordion, go to jail!” It’s been that way since we were first formally introduced to each other by computer book publisher and conference organizer Tim O’Reilly at his Peer-to-Peer software conference in 2001 (I met him back in 1995, but I doubt he remembers that — it’s a good story, though).

John Perry Barlow and me.

We had a good chat about all sorts of topics: pain, sleep lab sessions (his were far more interesting than mine), Mormon philosophy and musical instruments. His recent trips to “N’awlins” have piqued his interest in jazz, prompting him to consider jazz tuba.

The is the cover art for the Baby One More Time single!

That’s right, almost ten years have passed since the mega-hit — and one of my biggest accordion hits —Baby One More Time was released (the release date was November 3, 1998). I think we need to find some way to commemorate this anniversary, especially in light of all the differences between Britney then and now.

Oh, those halcyon days of lost innocence…

In case you’ve forgotten how the song goes, here’s the video.

This might make you feel old: ten summers ago, the single The Rockafeller Skank with its repeating “Right about now / the funk soul brother / check it out now / the funk sould brother” mantra was released by Fatboy Slim, a.k.a. Norman Cook. Here’s the video for old times’ sake.

Also for old times’ sake, here’s the video for another single off the album, Gangster Trippin’.

Here’s the best-known video to come from the album, the Spike Jonze-directed video for Praise You (one of the first things I ever played on the accordion):

And while not off the album, here’s a Fatboy Slim remix of Cornershop’s ode to Bollywood, Brimful of Asha, from the same era:

I’ve been enjoying Cake Wrecks, a blog devoted to some of the most hilariously cringe-worthy cake decorating.

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One major cause of cake wrecks is incompetence on the cake decorator’s part. This is especially true for cakes purchased at a grocery store, where the people in the cake department are more likely to be repurposed shelf-stockers or deli counter people than pastry chefs.

Here’s a cake from a grocery store, decorated by an employee who:

• needs to work on the ol’ icing penmanship,
• should lay off the sauce while at work, or
• follows the credo “Get minimum wage, give minimum effort”.

This grocery store-decorated cake shows a little more effort than the previous one, but this time the decorator confused instructions for text:

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Another major cause of cake wrecks: bad taste on the part of the person ordering the cake.

(I will be the first to admit that bad taste is sometimes called for. “Good taste is the first refuge of the witless,” as Harley Parker said.)

C’mon, admit it: there’s at least one person you’d love to send a cake like this to:

This one was apparently brought in by someone’s boss to the office to explain their sexual harassment policy and still keep the message delicious:

And finally, there’s this wonderful baby shower cake:

There are many more such cakes at Cake Wrecks — go check ’em out now!

…because old comic books now seem so twisted:

Found at Photobasement.
Click the photo to see the original.

In photography, placement is everything: